Didgeridoo players are frequently used in Welcome ceremonies to ‘call’ speakers, special guests and the audience to begin the ceremony. A didgeridoo player may also be used as a soloist in other parts of the ceremony.

Professional didgeridoo players, registered with an agent, charge a standard industry fee. Fees may be negotiable, according to individual performers needs and the type of performance required.

The National Musicians Enterprise Agreement, certified in July 2003, contains the following minimum rates for musicians.

27 October 2011

It's not like the United States Senate has anything else on their mind right now... right?

"Canadian syrup producers are licking their lips over news that a group of U.S. lawmakers have proposed a bill that would make it a felony to market a product as maple syrup when it’s not the real thing."

Is it just possible, Peace Moonbeam... that very publicly soliciting the assistance of an accused serial killer's mummy... might not serve the cause of objective journalism, or... more to the point... actual justice?But, but, but... it feels so good... and what could possibly go wrong?Professional journalists... your ethical & intellectual superiors.

Meanwhile... over at Canada's very own little Pravda... "What is this fact-check you speak of?"

-- TORONTO -- The CBC "misrepresented" calls embattled Mayor Rob Ford made to 911 in which he did not call the operators insulting names, the city's police chief said Friday.

"Misrepresent," huh? Is that anything like, oh... I dunno... a lie?

In a statement, Bill Blair said he had listened to the three emergency calls Ford made and felt it necessary "to set the record straight" about the calls.

I guess it could have been worse... the CBC could have asked Mary Walsh's mother for her opinion.

Just one in 10 of the tents at the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp which has closed St Paul’s Cathedral are occupied at night, it can be revealed. The camp forced St Paul’s to close for the first time since the Blitz and is costing local businesses thousands of pounds a day.

But most of the protesters are heading home to sleep in their own beds at night. Infra red images taken by a police helicopter during the early hours show that only around 20 of the 200 tents on the encampment actually have people staying in them.

The Daily Telegraph has shot its own video of the St Paul’s camp using thermal imaging equipment which appears to confirm these claims.

"Patrick Maloney, a certified Massachusetts health officer and former regional vice president for the National Environmental Health Association, noted minimum campsite standards apparently are not being met: portable toilets, space between tents, water spigots, showers and emergency exits."

25 October 2011

Rob Ford should've taken a page outta the Jean Chretien playbook... grabbed this dumb bunny by her ugly, unfunny face and tossed her to the ground...

"'I came out of my house and I was ambushed,' said Ford. 'It was pretty dark still and my daughter was with me, there was a black Jeep or something outside of my door, I sort of looked at it ... then two people who didn’t identify themselves came running up, they tried to get in my car and they stopped me from getting in my car'."

"The surprise "DRIVEWAY INTERVIEW" by the comedy show scared Ford’s six-year-old daughter so much she ran back into the family home. The incident prompted Ford to call Toronto Police."

Whatever your personal feelings may be about Mayor Rob Ford... this crosses a line. Funny how the CBC doesn't think to ambush Dalton McGuinty at his Rosedale mansion. Maybe because they'd have to try slip past his burly OPP bodyguard/driver.

More to the point, though... is this what you expect the CBC to be doing with your annual, involuntary billion-plus taxpayer dollar contribution?

How funny would this have been if the "warrior princess" had slipped underneath the wheels of Ford's car?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Ford should have kicked her right in the nuts. The CBC is a cess-pool full of these vile lefty activists. What a disgrace."

How many times does Dalton McGuinty have to lie right to your face... before you figure it out?On the plus side, he's using that eco-friendly 58-wheeler, huh?

-- Mississauga, ON -- The arrival of a massive generator at a supposedly unplugged Mississauga power plant site Monday will only jack up the tab for Ontario taxpayers when the facility is finally relocated, PC Leader Tim Hudak says.

“This Mississauga power plant is supposed to have been cancelled by Dalton McGuinty during the election campaign. It’s now 18 days later and the plant is continuing to be built. In fact, this is the most expensive component of what’s probably a $300-$400-million project,” Hudak said.

The Ontario Tories released photos of the generator on route to the south Mississauga location Monday, a month to the day after McGuinty told voters in the area that he would stop it if re-elected.

Just another little fib from the folks who promised... in writing... not to raise your taxes.

The only "green" this guy cares about is the stuff he can pull outta your wallet...

"About 6,100 megawatts of coal-fired generation continues to operate in the province, or about 20% of total generating capacity -- years after Premier Dalton McGuinty's self-imposed shutdown deadline of 2007."

"McGuinty promised to end the use of coal in Ontario by 2007 during the 2003 general election but since winning that race, the target date has been pushed back several times and is now 2014."

Gun Control forces target statistically insignificant issue of "deer rifle" criminality...I've gotta say, right up front... these guys must be way smarter than yours truly... because, even after racking my dumb as dogshit rural brain... I can't figure out how going after Farmer Bob's varmint rifle was supposed to obliterate the deadly spectre of urban handgun crime.

"Jean-Guy Gagnon, a former deputy chief with the Montreal Police Service, and chair of the national firearms strategy council of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, says that unless certain particularly dangerous firearms are reclassified before the long-gun registry is abolished, it will be easy for organized crime groups to boost their arsenals with military-grade weapons without leaving a paper trail."

I've gotta confess, I learned a thing or two here.

For instance, who knew that "organized crime groups" have, to this point in time... been registering their "particularly dangerous military-grade weapons."

Of course, "registration"... it's so obvious. Maybe that's why these thugs have to use all those cheapshit, chrome-plated Saturday Night Specials they smuggle in over our porous border with the U.S.

Obviously, without a "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" there'll be sniper nests on every Toronto street corner.

I'm also wondering, given the somewhat awkward admission that "rifles are rarely used in Canadian crimes"... how authorities pick out "particularly dangerous" ones. Maybe it's just the models with the cool black plastic pistol grips... or whatever scared Wendy Cukier on tv on the weekend?

It's about saving lives, maybe we should be restricting or prohibiting cars based on statistics about vehicle-related fatalities...

"Surprisingly, though: no calls for a Lexus registry or the closing of the locks — not even a puny “memorial” on the grounds. Weird, huh?"

Oh, right... we're not allowed to talk about that.

**********

RELATED: Go find some actual criminals...

...instead of, you know... law-abiding Canadians...

"Police seized the collection and charged him with 14 firearms-related criminal offences. All charges were dropped 10 months after the raid."

"In August, Sedge launched a lawsuit against the Toronto Police Services Board and 19 police officers from 55 Division and the Guns and Gangs task force."

23 October 2011

The non-partisan information commissioner has given the CBC a grade of “F” for its secrecy — but it still violates her order for it to disclose the truth. It’s spending millions in legal expenses to hide how it’s spending billions in other expenses.

Let’s privatize the CBC. If some private billionaire wants to use the CBC as a weapon, that’s his business. In the hands of the CBC’s unethical management, it’s everybody’s business — and it’s got to stop.

22 October 2011

-- EDMONTON -- The RCMP is beefing up the firepower of officers on patrol with a weapon now used by the army and police tactical squads. Starting next year, the C8 patrol carbine -- a cut-down version of a rifle similar to an M-16 -- will be made available to front-line RCMP members.

In an Oct. 19 memo obtained by CHED radio in Edmonton, departing Commissioner William Elliot tells Mounties the C8 will fill a gap in RCMP firearms capabilities.

He says based on tests, the carbine is a more accurate weapon that fires more bullets with less penetrating power, thus reducing the chance of someone else being hit.

Well... let's break that down. More accurate than what?

The C8 is certainly more accurate than a service sidearm, but, as anyone with a scoped deer gun could tell you, it's no sniper rifle. And there is a down side here... 'cos Mr. Elliot is talkin' out his ass about over-penetration.

Elliot says the C8 won't replace shotguns and other weapons the RCMP uses, but it will be made available to Mounties.

The need for the RCMP to have access to better weapons was highlighted in a report into the shooting deaths of four Mounties outside Mayerthorpe, Alta., on March 3, 2005.

Yup... access to a high capacity standoff firearm could've made the difference there. But so would taking this obvious sociopath off the street years before.A nice piece of hardware but, let's remember, there's no substitute for using that big computer between your ears.

“ -- KINGSTON, Ont. -- May the devil shit on their graves,” Mohammad Shafia told his second wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 20 days after the bodies of the couple’s three teenage daughtersand Mr. Shafia’s first wife were recovered from a car in the water at the locks.

In another snippet recorded by the device police had placed in a family car, Mr. Shafia told Ms. Yahya, “They committed treason themselves. They betrayed humankind. They betrayed Islam. They betrayed our religion…they betrayed everything.”

"Imagine 'Constable Duncan MacDonald' who is of Scottish heritage, waltzes into the station tomorrow decked out in a ceremonial kilt, complete with sporran. How many nanoseconds would tick by before P.C. MacDonald is hauled before a supervisor and sternly disciplined?"

I thought people came to Canada to embrace our values & lifestyle.

I know that's what my parents did.

**********

RELATED: I blame Prince Charles

-- KINGSTON, Ont. -- “We must be very clear in understanding that this barbaric practice occurs in many countries and cannot be traced back to Islam,” Imam Sikander Hashmi said.

“In England, provocation, code word for adultery, was a legal defence for men who killed their wives until 2009, so this is only two years ago that this was changed.”

20 October 2011

“You’re all going to die,” a man dressed in black screamed at passengers Tuesday afternoon.

“You’re all going to hell. Allahu Akbar.”

FBI Special Agent Mark White, based in Dallas, said the event did not appear to be an act of terrorism. He described Shahsavari as a U.S. citizen who might have experienced an episode of mental illness.

Hang on a second... I'm confused... what exactly are we dealing with here?

Amarillo police Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said there was a language barrier for investigators attempting to interview Shahsavari, who is of Iranian descent.

You ever wonder where stereotypes come from? Trust me, my friends... the suspense isn't the only thing that could kill you.The weight of all that metal... I'm surprised Prezidenteeh could actually lift a gun above his waist...

-- TORONTO -- A Toronto rapper is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and the robbery of a Leaside jewelry store where a clerk was wounded.

Moore was in custody for an unrelated shooting incident in March in the Entertainment District.

Yup... another shocker.

**********

RELATED: Bright lights, big city

-- TORONTO -- It’s been two years since Christopher Skinner was brutally beaten, run over and left for dead on a downtown Toronto street.

Christopher had been out in the Entertainment District with his sister celebrating her 23rd birthday the night he was killed.

Investigators believe he was on his way home, walking along Adelaide St., possibly attempting to hail a taxi, when his hand brushed up against a black SUV that was stopped at a red light at Victoria St. around 3 a.m.

The occupants of the SUV allegedly beat him up and then drove over him as they took off.

19 October 2011

...where the little boy enthusiastically tells us about his daddy's new "solar energy" gig... well, it seems they left out a few mundane financial details...Get out your calculators, my friends...I'm thinking this isn't an equation you wanna try solving in your head...

"The study also says creating 50,000 new green energy jobs as promised by the governing Liberals will require ratepayer subsidies of about $200,000 a year for each position."

...where former Conservative Premier Mike Harris kills a guy with his car on the busiest street in Toronto... and then writes a book portraying himself as the victim...

“What really attracted me to this book was the unflinching description of one man’s descent into a kind of hell,” Turbide said. “He has been humbled by what happened, but more important, wants to rededicate himself to public service and to overhaul the justice system.

What's life without a dream, huh?

He’d also served as minister of aboriginal affairs and attorney general — where he famously banned pit bulls from the province — and was considered a serious contender to succeed Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Prosecutors dropped charges against Bryant in May 2010 after deciding there was little chance of convicting him.

17 October 2011

I'm sure it's nothing Peter & Lisa can't solve... with a few "creative" camera angles...Hmmm, here's a thought... let's have some more social commentary from the folks who brought you lead-painted baby toys.

"We feel that there are issues here that are worth pondering," said Liu Weimin, a foreign ministry spokesman during a regular briefing in Beijing.

Just don't ponder them anywhere near you or the Politburo puppy-pile, right Liu?

Earlier in the year, anonymous online calls for protests in China inspired by those that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa spooked the Chinese government into launching one of its broadest campaigns of repression in years.

**********

RELATED: Special rules for special people

"Why pay for parking and risk getting a ticket on King St. when you can just park in the park? In fact one “poor” protestor’s $30,000 truck is in the middle of St. James Park and has been there for three days."

14 October 2011

...go get a bunch of your buddies and set up blockades on the nearest highway... and, oh yeah, don't forget to bring along some guns...Make sure you get your nose outta joint if the cops have the temerity to get involved in your "business"...

Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he was offended to learn that native activism is considered “threatening to national safety and security” in Canada.

“The Liberal Party of Canada recognizes the profound importance of the CBC's role in our society. We will fight to ensure our national broadcaster receives the support and resources it needs to continue to do its vital job.”

That's a billion taxpayer dollars per year. You ever wonder where all that money goes?

"In the fiscal year ending in March 2009 — a month when 61,000 Canadians lost their jobs — the top 10 executives at CBC split aperformance bonus kittyworth $888,699."

"The individual bonuses ranged from $4,300 at the bottom end to $165,090 at the top end, which is almost 3.5 times greater than the average Canadian salary, according to Statistics Canada."

And guess what? They're fighting to keep those facts from folks like you and me...

This week, CBC/Radio-Canada lawyers went to court in Montreal to plead that their Crown corporation not be subject to the Access to Information Act (AIA) like all other federal institutions.

Just a little something to think about... while you're writing out that big cheque next April.

Would our economic, environmental, and energy challenges best be solved by “funding a Manhattan-style project or by funding 100,000 garages across America to encourage the kind of industry and innovation that developed Silicon Valley?”

Just don't expect me to pay for it...Hey, Dalton... are you listening?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Or maybe "KIPEEPEE"...

"Kind of a swap meet page for organ donors? Could call it Switch-Gear or some such."

**********

RELATED: More special rules for special people

Project Empowerment runs its job skills training courses on three-week cycles and helps roughly 1,000 D.C. residents per year, according to Jones. The city's first transgender-only class enrolled in mid-September and graduated 17 people last Friday.

The program is run through Project Empowerment, an $11 million-a-year program paid for with D.C. tax dollars that helps hard-to-employ city residents such as ex-convicts and ex-addicts find work.

"TORONTO - At least one city councillor is fuming over plans by a consultative committee for suggesting on Tuesday that permits for body rub parlours be increased tenfold or more from the existing 25 to 'several hundreds' by early next year."

"'This will make us the biggest pimps in North America,' an outraged Giorgio Mammoliti said on Wednesday. 'These clubs will be springing up in strip malls and residential areas across the city.'"

Damn... that sounds so familiar...Chalk up another one... for the center of the compassionate, intellectual socialist universe.

“It is incumbent upon Canadian officials to investigate, arrest and prosecute former president Bush for torture when he arrives in Canada a week tomorrow,” said Alex Neve, Amnesty Canada's secretary-general.

Torture, huh?Say, Alex... is there anything else you might be leaving out of your little initiative here?

"The obsessive need of this president to apologize for American exceptionalism and our defense of freedom continued recently when Barack Obama's State Department (run by Hillary Clinton) contacted the family of al-Qaida propagandist and recruiter Samir Khan to "express its condolences" to his family."

"An altercation likely escalated to gunshots, said Det. Sgt. Pauline Gray. Gray would not comment on whether he was 'known to police'."

"'He has a lovely family here in Toronto,' Gray added. 'They’re devastated. We’ve had a lot of contact with them and they’re very supportive.'"

Door number two...

"A 27-year-old gunned down in the city’s east end over the weekend — just steps away from a memorial event for another Thanksgiving murder victim — was allegedly among a group of thugs who kidnapped, tortured and held a man for ransom last year."

11 October 2011

"U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was "conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran" by a faction of the government and called it a "flagrant" violation of U.S. and international law."

"The bundlers — Mark Gallogy, co-founder of investment firm Centerbridge Partners, Penny Prtizker, president and CEO of Pritzker Realty Group, and Robert Wolf, chairman of UBS Americas — have raised as much as $2.7 million for Obama in 2008 and 2012 combined, according to estimates provided by the Obama campaign."

Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 10:16 AM, October 11, 2011Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 1:15 PM, October 11, 2011Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 1:29 PM, October 11, 2011Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 1:48 PM, October 11, 2011Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 4:18 PM, October 11, 2011Posted by Skinny in Toronto to halls of macadamia at 5:15 PM, October 11, 2011

10 October 2011

-- TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- An Iranian military commander said Sunday that the protests spreading from New York's Wall Street to other U.S. cities are the beginning of an "American Spring," likening them to the uprisings that toppled Arab autocrats in the Middle East.

Conspicuously living among the politically active in the makeshift village in Zuccotti Park are opportunistic junkies and homeless people - making the most of the free food on offer.Where are the protests happening?

Also present and infuriating the hard core of activists are a number of teens looking to turn the gathering into an urban rave.

Among the banners and flags are now discarded packets of condoms, cigarettes and bottles of spirits, while naked youngsters happily get together with just sleeping bags covering their modesty.